Friday, February 06, 2009

With only a week to go, you better get your reservations made at any of the better restaurants in the area, because they are going to fill up quickly!

Why would I say that? Well, because Darwin Day is right around the corner, and you haven't even bought a new hat!

Darwin Day is an international celebration of science and humanity held on February 12, the day that Charles Darwin was born on in 1809. This year marks the 200th year since his birth and 150 years since he published his book "The Origin of Species". Very significant to those who practice Free Thought.

It celebrates the discoveries and life of Charles Darwin — the man who first described biological evolution via natural selection with scientific rigour. There were great minds like Aristotle and Lucretius who suspected the same theories of human evolution, but Darwin made the case understandable to the masses.

More generally, Darwin Day expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity.

For those wishing to take part in any gatherings to mark this historic birthday, you can join us this Sunday, Feb 8th, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Sawkill Rd at 11am, as our leader of the Hudson Valley Humanists offers...[get this] a sermon.

Ed Poll will be conducting a talk titled "Living in a Natural Universe" and will have three parts...

1) A positive look at religions of the past and inquiry into why people made religions2) A history of the humanism and secularism3) How we can construct a new framework for living without religion.

What am I going to do for Darwin Day, February 12th, you ask? I was thinking about renting "Planet of the Apes".

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Now this is wild. Darwin Day? I never heard of it as a celebration. Very cool.I'm guessing this wouldn't have support from all the other "congregations" would it? Science is in complete contradiction to most religions because their earth is still flat.

So, what is it, the UU accepts an all human embrace as its philosophy? How would they have room for non-theists? How does that work? I'll have to look this up.

As a Unitarian, I can tell you we are an all inclusive congregation. Our spiritual leaders bring samples of all faiths together to provide a healthy and healing sermon each week.From ancient Rome to the teachings of Neitzsche and Kant. There is too much good to sample amongst the many cultures to simply dwell in the narrows of one book. Although I enjoy a congregation far from you, I know you are in for an enlightening conversation this Sunday an am sorry to miss it.

Darwin himself was a man of faith, although his views on religion diverged from the belief of the Bible as literal history. It is not strange at all that congregations would discuss Darwin's contributions to science and understanding our world.

The so called free thinkers are in fact these days also Creationists, who reject the relative closed-mindedness of Evolutionists. It is nice to believe it is the other way around, but an objective review of same, for example "Creation Moments" on the radio, offers a much broader view of the world than does the usual Evolutionary bluster. And science is simply observation that is reproducible;Darwin's Theories of Evolution have, at least in the focus of man's evolution from a lower species, never been reproducible, nor indeed in most important matters on the focus subject, provable. Objectively, that is worse science than the science-laden supports for Creation. Darwin is an intellect who lacks sufficient science, period. Any really thorough and objective reading of the subject today would yield this conclusion, although old myths obviously die hard. I went to Catholic High School, and the state required that Evolution be taught as part of science, although the science it lacks is far more glaring than the science behind Creation. Science is NOT in fact a "complete contradiction" to most religions. It is contrariwise the biggest support therefor than almost anything! Some people don't understand what science is and what it isn't, and aye, thar's the rub!